Qualla: Greencastle, County Donegal

Greencastle, County Donegal: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NorthernCounties, CC BY-SA 3.0. Saoirse-Monica Jackson grew up here. The actress who played Erin Quinn in Channel 4's *Derry Girls* - the show that defined a generation's view of late-90s Northern Ireland - was raised in Greencastle, where her parents ran a pub. From the back garden of that pub you can look across the mouth of Lough Foyle and see the Causeway Coast of County Londonderry on the other side. It is a peculiar geography. Greencastle is in the Republic of Ireland but its nearest big town is Derry in the United Kingdom. The ferry to Magilligan saves you forty-nine miles of road driving and crosses an international border in fifteen minutes. The fishing fleet that ties up here works the same waters as the trawlers out of Portrush. Brian Friel, perhaps the greatest Irish playwright since Beckett, chose Greencastle as his home from 1982 until his death in 2015. Some places sit on borders. Greencastle is one of them.

Image: NorthernCounties | CC BY-SA 3.0

Greencastle, County Donegal: The Castle That Gave the Name

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User: (WT-shared) NorthernCounties at wts wikivoyage, Public domain. Northburgh Castle was built in 1305 by Richard de Burgh, the Red Earl of Ulster, as a base for Anglo-Norman power in the north-west. The ruins still stand on the headland above the village - a substantial fragment of curtain wall, the remains of a square keep, the foundations of ...

Image: User: (WT-shared) NorthernCounties at wts wikivoyage | Public domain

Greencastle, County Donegal: The Martello and Napoleon

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit SeanMack, CC BY-SA 3.0. Beside the ruined medieval castle stands a much later fortification: a Martello tower, built by the British around 1800 to defend the entrance to Lough Foyle against a possible French invasion. The Martello at Greencastle is one of a chain of these squat, drum-shaped coastal towe...

Image: SeanMack | CC BY-SA 3.0

Greencastle, County Donegal: Pier, Trawlers and Ferry

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ian Hunter, CC BY-SA 2.0. The first proper pier at Greencastle was built in 1813. It has been extended several times since. Today the pier hosts the Greencastle Fishermen's Co-Op, the Foyle Fishermen's Co-Op, Fresco Seafoods and a working trawler fleet that supplies markets across Ireland and beyond. The ...

Image: Ian Hunter | CC BY-SA 2.0

Greencastle, County Donegal: Brian Friel's Last Address

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kenneth Allen, CC BY-SA 2.0. When Brian Friel - playwright of *Translations*, *Dancing at Lughnasa*, *Philadelphia, Here I Come!* - moved to Greencastle in 1982, he was already one of the most important Irish writers of his generation. He chose Greencastle for the same reasons many people chose it: the quiet...

Image: Kenneth Allen | CC BY-SA 2.0

Greencastle, County Donegal: The Fastest-Growing Place in Donegal

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jnoon9145, CC BY-SA 4.0. Between the 2016 and 2022 Republic of Ireland censuses, Greencastle's population grew by 52.6 percent - from 831 to 1,268. That is the fastest growth rate of any urban area in County Donegal. The drivers are a combination of remote working, the ferry connection to Northern Irelan...

Image: Jnoon9145 | CC BY-SA 4.0